Customer Reviews

Memoirs of a Sword Swallower

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Mannix, who came to carnival life via the U.S. Naval Academy ("I didn't want to be a naval officer; I wanted to be a witch doctor!") and the Ivy League, brings his sideshow cohorts to life with this lively, witty, and sharp (sorry!) account that exudes a warmth as only a book written by an insider can. Mannix has always wanted to be a magician, and "runs away to the carnival" as an adult, first learning fire-eating when stepping in for fire-eater Flamo the Great who "exploded that night in front of Krinko's Great Combined Carnival Side Shows." He goes on to learn sword swallowing, sharing some of his insider's techniques (don't let the sharp tip touch the pit of your stomach; make sure the hilt doesn't come off and let the blade slide down your gullet.) If you are interested in the body on display, go ahead and read all the excellent academic pomo books about freaks and the "body as discourse," but be sure to read this one, too. It's an absolute gem. You will enjoy it to the hilt!

Memoirs of a Sword Swallower is something of an underground classic, providing an introduction to the U.S travelling carnival scene during the '40s and '50s. Interested readers might also want to track down "Bed of Nails" by Michael Blondini and Gordon Thomas, which was published in London a few years after "Memoirs" and seems to be heavily cribbed from it.

I have to say this is one of my very favorite books. My reading habits are all across the board, but for the honesty fascinating aspects of Mannix's tale, this book tops my list.

Mannix tells the story of how he became involved in the bizarre and long-gone world of the traditional ten-in-one sideshow. If you are a fan of the history of sideshows and the circus, this is a must-read.

If anyone else has read this book and would like to share some thoughts on it (or other books on sideshows), please e-mail me!

This book is beautifully written and has wonderful photographs. It first came to my attention when BBC radio serialised it on Radio 4. The characters, lifestyle and stories around this lost world of side shows and 'ten in ones' are brought to life by the authors pen. He lived as part of a working troupe and treats his subjects with affection and respect.The reader comes away with a sense of loss, that this world, so often considered murky, or unseemly, has all but gone. There are lessons to be learned on relationships, business and psychology within these pages. The opening sentence is one of the best I have ever read. It got me hooked and as a result of reading this book I actually pursued learning some of the skills mentioned. Thanks to the amazing Side Show school in Coney Island and the remarkable Todd Robbins, I was able to touch the world Daniel Mannix lived.
I reccomend this book unreservedly, it should be required reading for anyone interested in America's recent history and anyone interested in concise, colorful writing.

(Published originally as _STEP RIGHT UP!_)Since my childhood, when Mother read passages to us, this book has captivated me. Its images of the real people of the carnival life, just trying to get along, trying to make a living, with many of the same motivations as you and me, are painted in their true colors. The embarrassment of the author, a genuine fire-eater, burping a tongue of flame at the pharmacy clerk selling him a bottle of olive oil; the cowboy walking out to check on the 'stock' (the family car); the "Impossible Possible," never far from the line between moral and immoral, legal and illegal, working on both sides. What a story of Depression people in a unique business!

The sideshow was once a time honored tradition in the american heartland. Today the idea of the sideshow is old fashioned, boring nonsense because we've seen it all before on TV or in the movies. Mannix's book is so well written our minds are transformed to see the world as he did -- skeptical as heck but, with a mind open to learn the secrets required to make the impossible, possible. A terrific read.

I've read this book a few times now and it continues to make me want to become a Carny (or as I should say a 'showman'). This chronicles the authors experiences with a traveling sideshow troupe. It is a nostalgic look back on the time spent in this troupe, the characters met and his training in the various acts he learned to perform. It is a tale of burnt lips, romance, human Ostriches, fist fights and light bulb eaters. The photos show the characters met along the way and the aftermath of some of the events that occur. If you are into sideshows you probably love this book, if you are a 'sideshow virgin' this is an amusing introduction into this world. What it is NOT, is a dry academic text on the subject. I find myself revisiting this book every couple of years.

The version of the book I read was published by V Search in 1996, and was apparently the first edition to add 58 photos from the author's private collection. Drawn originally from magazine articles published in 1944-45, the work had been expanded into book form in 1951 as Step Right Up and retitled Memoirs of a Sword Swallower in 1964. The author, Daniel P. Mannix (1911-97), was an author, journalist and photographer, among other things.

The book described his experiences over six months as a young man traveling with a carnival around the Mid-Atlantic states, New England and upstate New York, the Ozarks and the South. Specific towns were rarely mentioned, and the time frame in general was vague. Since the book alluded to the Great Depression and Hitler's 1938 invasion of Austria, the author's experiences might have occurred sometime between the late 1930s and 1944-45. Yet World War II wasn't apparent even in passing and what biographical info the Internet has on the author said he was working in Washington during wartime. Another aside late in the book indicated that the year was 1950, which seemed much too late. Maybe the year was kept more or less vague to make the material seem fresh when the book was first published.

Raised in a wealthy suburb of Philadelphia and graduating from a nearby Ivy League university, Mannix described falling in with the carnival somewhere in the South. Chapters of his book were devoted to experiences with fire-eating and sword-swallowing, which he eventually gave up for lock-picking and mind-reading. There were chapters on the characters he traveled and worked with: Jolly Daisy the wise fat lady, Krinka the human pin cushion and carnival leader, Aunt Matty the fortune-teller, the mind-reading team of Mr. and Mrs. Moyer, and Bronko the cowboy and his partner Lu. There were also Captain Billy the tattoed man, May the snake charmer, the Great Waldo who ate anything the audience gave him, a mentor named the Impossible Possible and his wheel of fortune, and Mountmorency the talented talker (barker was a word avoided by insiders). Plus a love interest, Billie, who worked in a troupe of young models that accompanied the show. Some of the photos in the edition I read were of the carnival people the author knew, though there were no photos of him in costume doing his acts.

The writing didn't rival Tolstoy, but the material was fairly well organized; as the author learned how to perform, he got to know the other characters and described their backgrounds and activities. He depicted the general life of a carnival worker, and attempted to figure out how the stunts and mind-reading were accomplished. The book ended rather abruptly when he chose to move on and further his career as a writer.

Most enjoyable were some of the descriptions, the author's sense of humor that recalled Mark Twain, and the generous way the people in the life looked out for each other. The exploration of carnival-goers' psychology--their attraction to what was freakish, dangerous or painful to the performers, to getting their fortunes told, and entering risqué shows that promised more than was delivered. And some of the words that were used at carnivals, like bally, stick, grift, tip, top, clem, grind man, crabber, blow off, flat joint, mitt camp, and rag show.

Mannix's mentor, the Impossible Possible, appeared to have spent long years in carnival life and also as a con man. One felt that another book could've been written solely about his life and adventures.

A broad history of carnivals from the Middle Ages to the 20th century is Secrets of the Sideshows (2005) by Joe Nickell, who called Mannix's book a novelized memoir. Another survey is Freak Show (1988) by Robert Bogdan. Mannix revisited one aspect of carnival life in 1976 with Freaks: We Who Are Not as Others.

Excerpts:

"I probably never would have become America's leading fire-eater if Flamo the Great hadn't happened to explode that night in front of Krinko's Great Combined Carnival Side Shows."

"Carnivals are probably the only form of live entertainment that caters personally and frankly to the great mass of the American people."

"Everyone except the most cynical skeptics wants to believe in the supernatural. To the tip, the Moyers weren't side show performers doing an act. They were magicians in the tradition of Chaldea and Egypt. They were gratifying a human desire nearly as deep and basic as the sexual urge."

"Captain Billy told me that the closer a ride came to murdering the people who got into it, the more popular it was."

"The most terrible feat Krinko performed was pouring 'molten lead' into his eyes and ears. When the hissing lead hit his flesh and began to throw off steam, people in the tip fainted right and left as though you'd fired a charge of buckshot into the crowd."

"Now folks, just a word about the beautiful girls we have here whose purpose is to teach the public something about sex. Naturally, in a small, backward village like Higgin's Corners, where we played last week, we couldn't show lovely girls in a complete state of nature. But here in a forward, modern community like Ground-Hog Springs, we can throw conventions to the winds."

"My various skills have always made me much sought after--in fact in Texas they were once using bloodhounds."

"The men will find that Madam Moyer [the mind-reader] can advise them about financial matters, just as she has been doing for years for the leading bankers on Wall Street."

"You been living in a world that ain't on any map. When you was a kid, did you ever think about running away to fairyland? I sure did. Well, this is fairyland. It ain't a real world . . . . There's adventures and no responsibilities and fun and you'll never have to grow up. But if you never grow up, that means you can never have a home or a family."